My approach to the paintings in this exhibition began with a years-long study of the materials and techniques of medieval Italian panel painting. The elements consist of pulverized marble and clay from the earth, which forms the “ground,” sheets of gold, copper and metal alloy; egg yolk combined with pigment; and wood, creating the stable architecture on which everything rests.

The techniques with which each element are combined and composed unfold over long periods and require substantial labor and focus such as heating, stirring, dissolving, sanding, gilding, burnishing, and scraping. Some processes require no action at all, like drying, curing, and resting. I aim to allow the duration of this working process to preside over the outcome of a finished painting. In stages, I have conceived of compositions that overlay and are as independent of one another as possible. I practice intentional blindness to preceding layers to accelerate randomness in the final composition of form and color interactions, as well as reflect and absorb light on the surface.

I have found a productive tension between the specificity and time required by the techniques used here with the freedom found in the process of slow-motion improvisation.

Scott Olson, Ohio, 3 May 2020

Born in 1976 and based in Ohio, Scott Olson has exhibited in solo exhibitions at Cleveland Art Museum, Taxter and Spengemann, New York, and Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles. Olson has been included in group exhibitions and performances at Misako + Rosen, Tokyo, Japan, Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan, Italy, Chelsea Art Museum, New York , Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York (2009), Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan; Museum fuer angewandte Kunst ,Vienna, Austria; Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo. He also produced an audio CD, Liam Gillick Meets Scott Olson in Japan on the Whatness label in 2002.